He could just make out the tiny shape of Alf. The spider was standing on a piece of broken jar facing the window, flailing his two front legs. Was it the sudden view of life without glass walls bringing on the strange movements? Or was it something to do with the long, spiky leg, thick as a tree branch, that was now snaking through the gap in the window, and waving, searching, about the room?

Connor went rigid. He couldn’t utter a sound.

Things aren’t looking good for ‘arachnerd’ Connor. Wart, the weird new girl at school, thinks she’s his friend. But worse than that, night after night he feels as though something is watching him. He’s sure something’s out there … And his pet spider, Alf, seems to agree. Meanwhile, there’s been a boo-boo at NASA concerning a colony of spiders raised by Connor’s class and sent into space. Because of the lies he’s told, Connor is at home alone. Now he must rely on NASA’s hapless Herman Hatch to help steer him through a potential environmental disaster.

A girl who sticks Kool Mints up her nose, a dotty next-door neighbour and her rickety old dog — it’s not exactly the team Connor would have picked to save the world. But together the four prove surprisingly resourceful.